Post by galacticgirrrl on Jan 13, 2023 16:01:26 GMT
Controversy on Radio
The Mae West Incident (December 12, 1937)
The Chase and Sanborn Hour — Mae West is banned from radio for twelve years as a result of this skit.
www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/variety/the-chase-and-sanborn-hour/may-west-1937-12-12
On December 12, 1937, West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour. By the second half of the 1930s, West's popularity was affected by her dialogue being severely censored. She went on the show eager to promote Every Day's a Holiday. Appearing as herself, West flirted with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen's dummy, using her usual brand of wit and risqué sexual references.
More outrageous still was an NBC sketch written by Arch Oboler, starring Don Ameche and West as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
NBC Radio scapegoated West for the incident and banned her (and the mention of her name) from their stations. They claimed it was not the content of the skit, but West's tonal inflections that gave it the controversial context, acting as though they had hired West knowing nothing of her previous work, nor had any idea of how she would deliver the lines written for her by Oboler. West would not perform in radio for a dozen years, until January 1950, in an episode of The Chesterfield Supper Club, which was hosted by Perry Como.
Neither Don Ameche, Edgar Bergen, nor the writer of the sketch, Arch Oboler, bore any of the blame.
Send in 4 labels from Chase and Sanborn and get a Charlie McCarthy doll
The Mae West Incident (December 12, 1937)
The Chase and Sanborn Hour — Mae West is banned from radio for twelve years as a result of this skit.
www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/variety/the-chase-and-sanborn-hour/may-west-1937-12-12
On December 12, 1937, West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour. By the second half of the 1930s, West's popularity was affected by her dialogue being severely censored. She went on the show eager to promote Every Day's a Holiday. Appearing as herself, West flirted with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen's dummy, using her usual brand of wit and risqué sexual references.
More outrageous still was an NBC sketch written by Arch Oboler, starring Don Ameche and West as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
NBC Radio scapegoated West for the incident and banned her (and the mention of her name) from their stations. They claimed it was not the content of the skit, but West's tonal inflections that gave it the controversial context, acting as though they had hired West knowing nothing of her previous work, nor had any idea of how she would deliver the lines written for her by Oboler. West would not perform in radio for a dozen years, until January 1950, in an episode of The Chesterfield Supper Club, which was hosted by Perry Como.
Neither Don Ameche, Edgar Bergen, nor the writer of the sketch, Arch Oboler, bore any of the blame.
Send in 4 labels from Chase and Sanborn and get a Charlie McCarthy doll
